A Dream Left Behind
by shirayume
Summary: A story told in the eyes of Rukia. Full of deep memories and reflection. RenjixRukia Chapter 2 up.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1.**

If you asked me how my childhood was, I wouldn't say, "My mom took me to the park everyday," or "I was happy." No, if you asked me whole-heartedly, how life was as a child, I wouldn't say such blissful experiences like those. I would say, when I was small, I was cold. When I was small, I was hungry. When I was small, I felt like I was missing a piece of my heart and missing a piece of myself.

And water will keep flowing regardless of me.

I was little when my sister abandoned me and I could never blame her for that. She was scared and tired. There was no use in hanging on. She left me on the streets of Rukongai with the yearning of a better life. I? I was yearning for a warm hand.

A cold hand picked me up, but I felt the nice warm tenderness inside her skin. I don't remember much of this blur, but I remember living with a faint smile. At least for a little while. They at least taught me how to say my name. Rukia, Rukia, was what they taught me to say. My surname? I'm not sure. I'll let people make one up. By the time I reached the age of a child, my new family died. I surprisingly did not feel sadness. I felt like another kid on the street, stealing my damn butt off for a tidbit of food.

As a child living in the streets, I often distanced myself from the public. I learned to never trust adults and to make sure the children were honest. I often looked for animals in the wild and the only animals I found were bunnies. They were cute, but frail from the conditions, yet I still liked them. I liked that they couldn't tell you their troubles so they couldn't scream pathetically either. I became to like them even more and more. They became my favorites.

It was an autumn morning when it happened. I was stretching my arms and looking up at the dust in the sky. It was another day in Inuzuri. I kicked the dust and blew the sand clumps away. At that time I was a loner, wearing a simple purple-pink kimono with dots and petals. It was stolen, truthfully, from a little dead girl in the alleyway. I heard a yell from afar and it sounded like the old man I used to steal from everyday. I went to go see and in the distance I saw a head of red hair followed by some other boys. They were screaming something and behind them was that dangerous man. I thought about my options. Should I go save them? Or should I watch if they were able to make it themselves or not. I decided.

"I can't go anymore!"

Like an animal, I flew in to save them. Tripping the man, he shouted in surprise and fell to the dirt, face flat. He fixed his gaze to me and laughed about utter nonsense. I knew better to listen to his mouth run so I stomped his head to the floor numerous times. What were those children standing there for?

"This way! Follow me!" I told them, running ahead.

"Hey, wait a minute--" The red-head said.

"Hurry up, do you want other people to come after that water!" At that I continued to run. I supposed they would follow. That was plain instinct. We stopped after out-running the man through the streets. Huffing and coughing, we sat down on the pavement.

"So, why did you help us back there?"

"I had no choice. We children should just stick together, right? My name's Rukia."

"Renji," he stated.

--

We arrived in a small brown tent in the grassland, away from the streets of town. There, kids relaxed if only for a second and it was where we dwelled from there on. Renji led me inside and I placed myself on a barrel. He held up a small bag up to my face and I questioned him like anyone else would.

"What's that?"

"I divided up the candy we got. This is your share."

"Thanks." That was all I could say and I took the offering from him. I raised a piece up.

"It's confetti."

"Confetti?" I asked.

"What? You never heard of it? It's sweet."

"Oh." I was about to place the sweet confetti in my mouth when I heard a cry from within the tent. A taller boy was holding up a bag of candy and the smaller boy pathetically reached for it, wanting it back. The small boy jumped up and caught a part of the pouch, making it rip and all the contents spilled out onto the floor. He immediately started to cry.

"What! You don't need it, you don't even have a shred of spirit power!" The older one said. "'Long as you have water, you won't get hungry! Geez stop crying like a baby..."

I stood up and slowly walked to the older boy. What was I thinking, I didn't know, but it was so wrong. These thoughts churned inside my head and the only way to get rid of them was to speak them out loud.

"I told you to stop crying. It's freakin' annoyin'."

"Hey!" I grabbed onto the punk's shoulder. "None of us get hungry!"

"What the hell, you newbie!" He shrugged me off like a bug and swung his arm. I saw that coming and tripped him off his feet. Before he could sit back up I sat on his chest to hold him down and took hold of his head.

"We may not get hungry, but we could taste flavors! We could smell scents! We all share the enjoyment! Don't act like the scumbag grown-ups! Got it?" He nodded and I got up from his chest. I took my own bag of candy and went to the poor kid. He still weeped sorely so I held up my own bag. "Don't dry anymore. Take this." I left the tent with their eyes on me. I needed fresh air from the wicked aura of that moment.

I wanted to climb. Ever since I could remember, I loved to climb things: trees, houses, even on the shoulders of my past family. I saw a nice tree in front of a view of the rooftops. With ease I stepped up and seated myself on a branch. Do you know how beautiful it is to climb a tree? One might think it's just something a child would do. You would laugh at the immaturity of it all, but that is coming from someone that is ignorant. To climb a tree is a bliss. I can forget the troubles by smelling the wind and feeling it run through my fingers and toes. To have the time to climb one is a blessing. If the weather is nice, then the dreamy surrounding could take you away and if it rained, you would be one of the first to be cleansed by it.

Renji ran by under me and he stopped to look around. He was looking for me. "Hey, Renji! What's up? Need to talk to me?"

He didn't answer for a second, but only stared at me from below. Was that a bit of red coming to his face?

"No, it's nothin'."

I laughed. I giggled from his stupidity. Anyone could tell that he did want to say something, or check up on me. Hiding it was so foolish. So foolish, Renji. "You're a strange one."

"_You're _the strange one!" He pointed at me. I could only laugh at him. "Hey, what are you laughin' at! Dangit Rukia, I said quit laughing! Ah dangit!" He was raising a fist now and jumping around on his toes. Foolish Renji, you always made me laugh.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

As I sat on the wind-washed floor, I watched the other children play with the dragonflies hovering across the sky. I didn't know if I belonged with them since I was a new girl. On the first day, I proved myself that i had the spirit of a good person, but I think that it wasn't enough. I hugged my knees and sighed. It was boring all alone.

"Rukia."

I looked up. Renji was standing in front of me. He tried to act cool by crossing his arms, but seriously, he didn't look that cool. I laughed at this thought and he steamed.

"I only said Rukia! Stop laughing suddenly like that!"

"Alright. Alright. What is it Renji? You should playing with the others."

"That's my line, Rukia. You can't spend forever just sitting there like a duck. Come on," he said. He dragged me along onto the grass and shoved a string in my hand. "Take it. Tie it to a dragonfly when you catch one. It's sorta like a pet."

"Oh, okay. Though it seems...weird."

"Don't complain. come with me."

He grabbed my hand once again and we jumped out at a patch of dragonflies resting on leaves. I had trouble catching them and would often let it slip out of my fingers. How embarrassing. I stopped running and sat to catch my breath. I looked at the rest of them. They all caught at least one fly with such experience.

"Come on, everyone release them!" A boy shouted. The boys and girls let go of the dragonflies on their strings and they held them like kites. A girl came over to me and stared at my empty hand.

"Hey where's your dragonfly? You caught one didn't you? It's not that hard."

"I...I.."

"Rukia!" I turned around to see Renji and his pals rush over to me. "Hey hey, what, didn't you hear that kid. If you wanted your dragonfly back, you could've just told me! You shouldn't make me hold it for you for the whole day." Renji held out a dragonfly. "I wasn't able to catch one though. Damn, and I usually catch the most around here."

"Um, Renji..."

"Take it or leave it Rukia. If you don't, I'll take it for myself," Renji looked away.

"Oh, alright...thanks for holding it for me...but uh, thank you for helping me catch it in the first place, Renji." I took the end of the string and Renji smiled at me. "Nah, you caught it all by yourself... Hey girl, don't you have better things to do than to watch us?"

"Hmph, rude," the girl stuck up her nose and left. Renji held out a hand for me and dragged me like a doll again and placed me down next to the others. His pals ran after us too with dragonflies in hand.

"Well, fly it already."

I nodded and let go of the dragonfly's body. It floated up to the sky and danced around in circles. I looked at Renji and smiled. He smiled too.

"Thanks."

Renji puffed out his chest and blushed. "Just pay me back later, kay?"

"Alright."

Already Renji accepted me as a friend. How nice it was to finally meet friends of my own. Even though he isn't the type to express any kindness, he is kind, and proud of himself too. I looked up at the dragonfly. It was graceful and light. I wonder if I could be like that someday. If I had the ability to be free and graceful...

"Hey Renji..." I meekly turned around.

"Hm?"

"You didn't have to give me your dragonfly. It's yours."

"You'd look like a fool in front of that girl if you didn't catch any. It'll create a bad image to others. Well, everyone already knows me well, so you don't have to worry about me." Renji yawned.

"Do you want to share it at least?"

"Sure..." Renji grabbed a piece of the string and we flew it together. The dragonfly circled around our heads and would land on our heads often. We laughed and fell to the ground when we knocked our bodies against each other. The little guy flew away, dragging its string with it and we gasped, trying to get it back. We yelled for it to come back while chasing after its wings and eventually we fell to the ground, panting.

"Baka! Why did you knock against me! Now we don't have the dragonfly at all!" I yelled at him.

"You were the one who got all crazy, flying that thing. It takes experience to know how to fly them!"

"Oh it's just holding a string Renji!"

"Well it does take experience to even catch them in the first place!"

"We're talking about how it got freed; not how to catch them," I shouted.

"Well, it's your fault," Renji replied.

"Yours!"

"Yours!"

We spent the whole time walking back to the run down abode, shouting at each other and even spent half the night whispering insults to each other. I forgot who had the last say in this, but when we woke up, all was forgotten. I guess this became our way of bonding, always trying to prove ourselves to each other. I just did it because I wanted to have the last laugh and to be better than Renji, but little did I know that Renji argued with me because of another reason.


End file.
